15 Jun 2007 11:29 PM, by devvv (Bernhard Stockmann)

Hot text on flames / fire

There are many ways to create fire text, but believe me, no other text is looking that cool and real as this one ;) Of course it maybe a lil' more effort to get it. I will show you how to create such a hot flames text with GIMP.

This article has been written using GIMP 2.2. It's divided into 7 steps and takes about 15 min to complete for an average user. 77317 times read so far. Category: Text effects, required skill: 1 of 5

32 comments have been posted so far.

Available in other languages:

Eine feurige Flammenschrift (de)

1
Create a new File of any size. I chose 420 x 200px. As BG-Color choose black. Done so write some white text to a new layer (bold text, white color, size: 50).

Click to enlarge
2
Right click the text-layer in the layers dialog and choose "merge down". You should only have one single layer now.

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3
Now, that we have all one one single layer, we create our flames. Use the Smear-Tool to do so and choose the values that are shown on the picture.

Click to enlarge
4
Zoom in to 200%. Now start at the first letter of your text: Hold down your left mouse button and smear around the border of this single letter to make it somehow gray as seen in the picture. It should look real so it must not be perfect. If you watch flames you will see the natural chaos ;)

It is important to change the super white into gray tones.

Click to enlarge
5
After that make some flame-like movements to the top.

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6
Let your creativity come out and do this with all the letters now.

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7
Well, we are almost done already. Now we simply have to add the correct colors of fire.

Choose Layer / Colors / Color Balance:

Shadows
------------
+100
+30
-30

Midtones
------------
+100
+30
-30

Highlights
------------
+100
0
-100

Click to enlarge

This article is licensed under the following license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Austria

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http://www.gimpusers.de/tutorials/text-with-flames.html 2 rating(s) with 4.5 of 5 stars in average

http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 29 Jun 2007 05:37:03 AM CEST inam, 29 Jun 2007 05:37 AM

excellent and easier to follow for new users.
Thanks a lot.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 12 Jul 2007 10:44:42 AM CEST Nano, 12 Jul 2007 10:44 AM

this tut is great simply amazing results
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 19 Jul 2007 06:25:09 PM CEST Stick Slaughter, 19 Jul 2007 06:25 PM

This is extremely easy, and fun to make. This is an excellent tutorial.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Tue 24 Jul 2007 08:33:30 PM CEST Ruby, 24 Jul 2007 08:33 PM

Great tutorial, thanks!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 26 Jul 2007 07:27:10 PM CEST d0gzer0, 26 Jul 2007 07:27 PM

Fantastic tutorial. Thank you very much!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sat 28 Jul 2007 10:09:32 AM CEST razie92, 28 Jul 2007 10:09 AM

Thanks for the tut! Now I can impress my friends lol
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 09 Aug 2007 10:21:21 PM CEST Chris_C, 09 Aug 2007 10:21 PM

Thanks so much for taking the time to make this!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sat 11 Aug 2007 06:05:22 AM CEST Jon, 11 Aug 2007 06:05 AM

Yeah, that worked really well. Thanks! Something else you can do after making the flames is use the same smear tool on the bottom of the text with the rate setting at 100 to make it look like the letters are dripping/melted!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 31 Aug 2007 11:27:49 PM CEST jay, 31 Aug 2007 11:27 PM

Excellent tutorial! Thank you very much.

Here are a few things that I did at the end to make the flames look even better (it may look like a lot of steps but they are all very simple):

1. In the layers dialog, click on the "New layer" button and select Layer fill type as White. Move this layer to the bottom.
2. Right click on the top layer and click on "Duplicate layer". Move the duplicate between the original and the white layers.
3. Select middle layer. Go to Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Choose IIR and set both Horizontal and Vertical blur to 15.
4. Select the top layer. Go to Layer -> Transparency -> Color to Alpha. Set black color to be converted to alpha. Repeat this for the middle layer.

At this point, the figure should appear like the letters have a glow around them and are on a white background.

5. Now select the bottom layer. Choose the Fill tool (Shift+B) and fill in the bottom layer with the color of your choice. I prefer a dark red color :)
6. You can also choose the middle layer and do Layer -> Colors -> Invert to get a cool blue glow around the flames!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 13 Sep 2007 02:09:37 AM CEST Adam_R, 13 Sep 2007 02:09 AM

Nice thanks for this
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sun 02 Dec 2007 02:31:06 AM CET Ynpfoi, 02 Dec 2007 02:31 AM

WOW!
This was so helpful!
Thank you for taking the time!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 13 Mar 2008 12:53:56 AM CET stingerman, 13 Mar 2008 12:53 AM

Awesome thanks for that!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 27 Mar 2008 04:25:15 PM CET cooool boy 23, 27 Mar 2008 04:25 PM

this is qwesome
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Wed 16 Apr 2008 01:10:14 AM CEST bob, 16 Apr 2008 01:10 AM

LOL another (FAST) way is just to download it from cooltext.com
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sat 17 May 2008 08:12:11 PM CEST debbie, 17 May 2008 08:12 PM

sexy
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sun 08 Jun 2008 06:33:22 PM CEST bAck, 08 Jun 2008 06:33 PM

thx, easy tut and nice made
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sat 28 Jun 2008 11:46:32 PM CEST LALALA, 28 Jun 2008 11:46 PM

AMAZINGGG TUTORIAL. thanks. :D
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sun 24 Aug 2008 12:55:20 AM CEST Anonymous, 24 Aug 2008 12:55 AM

Wow! Great tutorial! I used the extra steps and it worked great! I duplicated the blueish color to make it stronger on my black background. It looks awesome. It was easy, thanks!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 02 Oct 2008 07:24:47 PM CEST xXx, 02 Oct 2008 07:24 PM

this is what i got

Click to enlarge
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Thu 20 Nov 2008 03:04:22 PM CET Bownz, 20 Nov 2008 03:04 PM

http://i367.photobucket.com/albums/oo113/Benownz/Bownz.png

my outcome!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 13 Mar 2009 01:54:16 AM CET bobdotexe, 13 Mar 2009 01:54 AM

some one should make a ScriptFU for this...
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Wed 08 Jul 2009 03:15:31 PM CEST Pauldb, 08 Jul 2009 03:15 PM

Very easy tutorial, for a newbie, i understand everything.. Thanks man !
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Tue 28 Jul 2009 11:27:02 PM CEST Darlingpresley, 28 Jul 2009 11:27 PM

fabulous! easy to follow and excellent results!!!!

xx

Click to enlarge
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Wed 29 Jul 2009 10:36:41 AM CEST Darlingpresley, 29 Jul 2009 10:36 AM

I duplicated the finished layer, and colourised it more towards the red spectrum...I then overlayed the red text layer onto the original layer but took the opacity down to about 50%

Got red hot flames lol

maaaaaan I love these tutorials :)

Click to enlarge
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Mon 24 Aug 2009 06:43:52 AM CEST mahvin, 24 Aug 2009 06:43 AM

Good tutorial, thanks Bernhard!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Sat 03 Oct 2009 11:27:15 PM CEST Thiago's photoshop, 03 Oct 2009 11:27 PM

heyy its so cool!
F:\Untitled.jpg
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 23 Oct 2009 10:27:52 AM CEST glibwort, 23 Oct 2009 10:27 AM

try duplicating the finished layerand playing around with the blend tool

Click to enlarge
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 13 Nov 2009 05:07:59 PM CET ASIF, 13 Nov 2009 05:07 PM

fhsg
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 13 Nov 2009 05:08:58 PM CET ASIF, 13 Nov 2009 05:08 PM

gdfdfdzd
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 05 Mar 2010 01:27:50 AM CET Alex, 05 Mar 2010 01:27 AM

It seems like a lot of work. So I Gaussian Blurred it and and distorted it with the Wave effect. THEN I applied the smudging. It didn't look to shabby. :)
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Fri 05 Mar 2010 02:19:34 PM CET devvv, 05 Mar 2010 02:19 PM

@Alex: The technique you describe is a fast flame-text, but you dont get nice flames with it - the flames with the wave are too euqal to look real ;)
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/text-with-flames.html Mon 08 Mar 2010 04:02:46 AM CET n00b, 08 Mar 2010 04:02 AM

Very easy, I played with the coloring and then when finished I used the fuzzy select tool to delete the background. This is what I came up with.

Click to enlarge

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